Abstract

This book compares the practices of the courts of France and Spain in the reigns of Louis XIV and Carlos II, looking particularly at the figures of the two kings from the point of view of what could be called political anthropology: the man of power in his palace setting, his social milieu and his relationship with the public. A study of their behaviour and their use of the body, the staging of their real body and symbolic body, the construction of appearances, the production of images and the shaping of the public’s imagination, ingredients that are recognised today as indispensable in every governance undertaking.
At a time when research on the memory is leading to developments in very varied fields, this book examines the notions of heritage, tradition, reception and rejection, seen as strategies used by sovereigns in the construction of modern states, with their specific local features, and the competition between two great dynasties, the Habsburgs in Spain and the Bourbons in France, which formed the face of Europe.